The pre-made cables are just
a few dollars more than the replacement connector, but at the time it
seemed like a good short cut that would save a trip to the store.

I'd say our crimping tool
wasn't made for those large connectors. If I had it to do over again I
might have used a table vice to squeeze the connector better, but any
future cable problems will wait till we can get the proper pre-made
cable.

Want
to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the
RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.

Trying to be cheap can be very expensive! So far, you got off lucky. Electrical fires can be very hard to put out. Lead/acid battery fires are not nice. You can call me overly cautious, but I'd rather not have to worry if the EV I'm driving is about burst into flames.

I'm slowly learning the high price of certain short cuts, but sometimes it pays off in a good way.

We also like to experiment with new materials and techniques as a form of entertainment as opposed to just saving time and money.

I guess the balance is learning how to estimate if a short cut will take more time and money than the more conventional approach. Sometimes we guess wrong, but it usually ends up teaching us something about the process that we can apply to future decisions.